The Master...

Suite that is... This is our bedroom. I have to admit that I still think its cool!

The wallpaper is just awesome - if I do say so myself. Its got a texture to it, and the sheen of the paper changes as you walk past it. The sheer curtains are great too - we've hung them over the top of the drapes, so they draw behind them.



The light fixture came from Sydney... Matthew and I bought it back as oversized baggage! There's two more upstairs in the spare bedrooms - but they're slightly different.


And here's the ensuite. It's not huge, but it works very well. We searched long and hard to find fixtures that we liked, that we could afford - store after store, every sale there was - and eventually we managed to get stuff that we liked.



And the shower is huge! Its about the same length as a bath, so plenty of room to dance about - or do whatever else you like...

The outside

So as promised, here are some pictures - starting with the outside.

This one's pretty obvious - the front door. The window on the wall does look quite low in this picture, but it sits at bench height inside, so makes sense from the inside.



If you look in the middle of this picture, you can see the little plants in the planter box on the other side of the windows. I wasn't convinced about putting these windows in, but they do make quite a feature, and let light into the entrance area. The plants are Lancewoods - they're really weird, but quite cool!



Here's the courtyard! It took a while to get it all sorted out - and then it took even longer for us to finish painting the fences and staining the deck and the planter box. It was a pretty big decision for me, but my 10 year old yuccas have been planted in the ground! I've carted those round about 6 flats and the apartment, but well, now they have a permanent home.



Just underneath the washing line is a herb garden. It doesn't look that great in this picture, but I can assure you it is currently a picture of health. Parsley, rosemary, oregano and mint are doing really well. The rocket went absolutely nuts, and is now producing huge amounts of seed pods. Hopefully it will self-sow and spread through the garden. The thyme is doing ok, but the sage doesn't really seem to be doing much. The coriander was a fizzer!



And last, but certainly not least - here is the finished cottage from the street. The fence is finished (finally finished the painting!) Doesn't she look great?!

yeah, I know - I'm a bad blogger...

So I had the best of intentions to actually do a post on here with some pictures of the house - and a bit of an update. But, as they say, the best of intentions... I honestly AM going to put some more pictures up though - I was inspired by meeting a person who was following my blog! You know who you are...

Anyway - of course I have gotten to the end of the holiday weekend (Wellington Anniversary) and, as I am prone to do, decided to start cooking something which I really don't have the time to do, and I've still got to finish all the chores that I haven't done yet! So much for finding pictures of the house - or taking more - and actually getting them in a state to go on here... It is going to happen!

So the ultra quick update before I go back to the kitchen is:

• still loving the house
• outside landscaping complete!
• Most of the garden planted
• nearly all the fences painted!

We're still working on the actual decoration - i.e. the interior is finished, but it still looks a little bare. We've bought a spanky new dining table and some fabulous chairs (that will be a whole post), but we need to work on some art for the walls, and some cushions and things. I did make it (early) to the Kirks sale today, so have now got some lovely Egyptian cotton sheets for our bed! They're so thick and luxurious!

Ok, the dinner's probably burning so must go!

Definitely more soon!

Interior shots

Sorry that it has once AGAIN taken me so long to get these pictures up - but I have a good excuse! I have started my own business! Early days yet, but things are looking very positive. If you need any policy advice or economic analysis - get in touch!

So here is my lovely kitchen.

As you can see, its very much about clean lines - as few protrusions as possible. And that lovely shiny black granite!


We've maximised the storage by taking the cupboards right up to the ceiling. Love the glass splashback too - keeps up the shiny theme with the granite and the stainless steel.


Stairway to heaven? Just a sunny day and our great skylights!

Love the wee wall mounted light up in the stairwell - it creates a great effect on the wall.

And here's the guest bedroom - well it ours for the moment until the curtains actually arrive. You can't really see the effect in the wallpaper that makes it so spectacular - several of the stripes are metallic silver. It really is a very bold wallpaper, but I love it! Hope my guests do too...

And the verdict is...

... The house looks great!

Here's the finished product!

Apologies to my loyal readers - that's you Dons - for being so slack in keeping you updated on the happenings with the house. Things moved quite quickly going in to the end of the year, as we tried to organise all the stuff that needed to be done - carpet, curtains, decorating, etc etc. The builders reached practical completion on 23 December - and what with the time of the year, and a mission with the bank to get the mortgage sorted out, well the blog has taken a bit of back seat...

But yes, we have moved in, and it is fantastic! Everything we were planning it to be and more. The move went very smoothly, and importantly, everything fitted in. And everything fitted down the side of the house to the front door!

It looks narrow - but it doesn't actually feel that bad - and the sofa fitted down there, so it can't be too bad. The deck/boardwalk was a great idea - it takes you down to the front door at floor level which is nice. It's a very neat finish too. We're probably going to stain it - but we've got a few other things to sort out before we get to that.

Got home to this just this Friday past... I was talking to Matthew on the phone before I got home, and he said 'you are going to hate the chimney'... Quite why our chimney needs to be THAT high, we've got no idea - it looks ridiculous. We're yet to query this with the gasfitter / builder. Hopefully it can be made shorter!


And the final picture - don't you love my street numbers?

So it has been a real big deal to get to this point. We've had such a lot of support since we moved in, which is just really nice and confirms that we did the right thing. We've got some further stuff to complete around the outside - and more unpacking of all the 'bits and pieces' inside - but its great to finally be in!

More pictures of the interior to come - including my spanky wallpaper!

I am SO EXCITED!

Matthew and I have just been over to the house, and it has really come along such a long way - in just a day! I feel so much more excited about it now! Probably helps that I've just finished work for the year too! Yay!

As promised (sorry its taken me a while loyal readers...) here are some more photos. I've gone for a detailed set. Above is a sneak peak of the ensuite off the master bedroom. I'm really pleased with the floor - and I absolutely LOVE the tiling! They look absolutely fantastic!

Here's a close up of the loo in the ensuite - though you can see the lights are still to be installed.

And well - had to show you this! My fantastic wardrobe! As you can see, its absolutely enormous! You may not be able to fully appreciate how big it really is from this picture, but I can assure you, it's big. And it gets better... There's TWO of them!

Because I know you appreciate my sense of detail, here's a close-up of the architraves and scotia. We've gone for a traditional approach, with colonial style architraves, and the style-ly scotia.

And here's the second bathroom - with bath. Only half the glass screen is installed here - hopefully the rest of that goes in tomorrow. Once again, tiles look great!

And I can't believe we haven't put up a picture of the spanky front door before - so here it is! It's a lovely glossy black, with a stonking great door handle. V. cool.

We went over to the house tonight to pick up a light fixture that turned out to be the wrong colour, and the electricians have gone to town! Most of the fixtures are in now - and the electricity has been connected. Its really starting to feel like a home now - and the lights look great. The under-cabinet lights in the kitchen are cool, and the pendant fixture in our bedroom (the one we bought back from Sydney on the plane...) looks absolutely amazing! The entry deck is very nearly complete - so we will actually be able to get in to the house from the footpath - and it looks great.

Can't wait to move in.

The sense of excitement is palpable...

Well, actually it's not, but I thought I had to say something like that... I have to admit that I am starting to get a bit excited about the house, but there's still so much to be done, well its hard to be too excited. I am kind of enjoying the furnishing things though - curtains, etc. Would be great if we could buy all new furniture too...

We are VERY nearly there! Last finishing things are still going in, and hopefully we will have electricity today. The final part of the deck is being built, so we might actually be able to use our own access off the footpath to get into the house soon - rather than having to use our neighbour's driveway.

Apologies to loyal readers about the lack of pictures recently! I have taken some - and will get them up soon! (Need advice from my technical director on resizing etc...)